The Light of the World

Jim Clements · Tidal Church Moncton · December 24, 2023 · The God I Want series

Jim Clements centres on John 8:12 and Isaiah 9, set against the Feast of Tabernacles lights in the temple. In a world growing darker, Jesus is the Light of the World, the God we truly need, and everyone is invited to respond.

More from Jim Clements · The The God I Want series

Topics: Hope, Faith, Christmas

Transcript

[0:06] One of the hardest things in ministry, I think, is to always follow cute kids, right? Man, as they talked about the toys and the things that they would like to get for Christmas, I was reminded of this airplane that I have sitting on my shelf that I got as a kid way, way back. And it was one of these that you kind of, it's beat up now. I've had it so long that you kind of scratch it on the floor and, you know, sparks fly out of the back of it before you let it go. It's a real good combination of sparks and shag carpet and all that. It's probably not allowed anymore now. And when we moved away from our house in 1980, the people that my mom and dad sold their house to renovated it, and through the renovations, they actually found this plane sitting in the air duct of the furnace, forced air duct, and were good enough to send it to us.

[1:04] Isn't that kind of cool? So I've hung onto that airplane for so long. When you think about the gifts, but you think at this time of year we get so many gifts. We give gifts, we get gifts. Sometimes we break the gifts we get, sometimes we kind of, we give it away, or sometimes we donate it because we didn't like the gift. And there's even sometimes you regift the gift, but the trick is you gotta remember who gave you the gift to start with so you don't regift the gift to the person that gave you the gift to start with as a gift, right? You with me? You know, in today's world, when it comes to this time of the year, and even as it leads up to this time of the year, it just seems as though our world is getting darker and darker and darker, that people in are, it's becoming about me, me, me, me, what I want, what I want, what I want.

[2:10] I had to get a new phone because, like, they tell me every time that, like, it's due for an upgrade. You gotta get an upgrade. And so, like, this is how crazy it is for me. They give me a new phone and I go, what are all these things? On the back of it, he goes, those are cameras. Oh, wait, wait, now you said cameras. He goes, yeah, there's like three cameras there. I'm like, so it's pretty well idiot proof, right? Like, you can't get a good picture with three cameras on your cell phone. Then what are you gonna do? And I'm thinking, just think of the things that get created all the time out of what I want. And when we did a, we've been in the middle, not in the middle. Now we're at the end of the series of The God I Want. And we went through it. And let me highlight for you the different things that we talked about.

[2:59] In week one, we talked about the king. The God I Want is the only authority that I need to submit to, no other authorities, just God. And then when we got to week two, we talked about the rescuer and how the rescuer, the God I Want, to destroy hardships and to make my life easier. That's the God I Want. And then in week three, the God I Want was the judge, justice to make my life fair, to make things. Even I told my kids when they were growing up, they go, it's not fair. And I said, you know what a fair is?

[3:45] It's a place they judge pigs for ribbons. And then in the fine, then last week we talked about the God I Want is the conductor, the ticket, the stairway, is the one to bring me to heaven. Those were the four that we've talked about so far in The God I Want. But as we read in the Scripture, Isaiah 9: 2 is what I want to start us with this morning. We're not going to go to just the celebration of Jesus' birth. It said this, if you remember, the people walking in darkness had seen a great light on those living in the land of deep darkness. A light has dawned. Have you ever gone on a cave hike, went on a cave hike in Virginia years ago and they've got staircases and the way that leads you down to the bottom.

[4:43] And then the tour guide said, do you want to experience total cave darkness? And I'm like, I think I do. And he shut off every light in that cave. It is incredible the sensation you get when you can feel your breath on your hand in front of your face, but you can't see it. And it's less than an inch from you. See, the enemy in the world is just bringing us into darkness. People are hurting, people are suffering. People need help. People need hope. But our world just keeps getting darker and darker.

[5:31] Where do we find the light? The light that makes darkness disappear? Well, I'm gonna talk about that this morning, but we're gonna take you to a different time in Jesus' life. We're all familiar with the Passover. We're all familiar with Pentecost. But are you familiar with Sukkot? It's the Feast of Tabernacles, or sometimes it's referred to as the Feast of Booths. And this is a time when the Israelites would move out of their homes and they would build these temporary structures to live in for seven days, not going back into their homes. On three sides it would be covered, and then maybe they would have branches on the roof and they would live in there for seven days.

[6:19] The time that they did it was during the last harvest of the year, which some theologians say represents when Jesus will come for the last harvest of His church and of His people. But during this time in the temple, they had 75-foot candelabras with four candle oil-burning basins in them. And people would climb to the top of these and light them. See, this was for them to remember that God delivered them outta slavery. And when they wandered, they were in temporary shelters, and the lighting of the candelabras reminded them of the pillar of light and fire that gave them light during the daytime, warmth, and protected them.

[7:12] They may look a little something like this, these candelabras. And it was said that when these were lit at night, that the courtyards that were outside of the temple would get light from these candelabras. It was incredible how much that it shined. It was a reminder that God was going to send a great light. That God had a plan to restore Israel's glory from bondage and restore hope and freedom to them. Now imagine with me, go back in time and picture yourself standing around these candelabras, watching people climb to the top, to put oil in, to light them.

[8:05] The illumination also reminded us of two things that were, one that was, and one that was to come. It was the light of all lights, the Shekinah glory, the visible presence that God filled in the first temple that Solomon built. But it was also representative of the great light who was to come, who would eliminate darkness, spiritual darkness from the world. Now imagine with me, Jesus enters the space. And in John 8:12, when Jesus spoke again to His people, He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

[8:55] Jesus is the light that drives out darkness. Jesus is the great light. If you're finding yourself in a dark spot in life, with struggles and with hurt, trying to find peace and hope, Jesus is the One who brings light and drives out the darkness. And Jesus declared this to the people that were there. It fulfilled the prophecy that Isaiah had when he said the great light was to come. Now with that in mind, let's move from a philosophy of what I want to what I need God to be.

[9:42] And if we go back to these and we look at the king, the God I need is the One who calls me to submit to all authority. He wants us to have a submissive spirit, a gentle spirit for all authority. Then if we go to the conductor, the God I want, the God I need is the One who brings heaven to earth, not me to heaven. We want people to be able to experience heaven on earth through how we live our lives, how we experience God each and every day.

[10:31] And then the rescuer, the God I want, but the God I need as a rescuer is the One who remains with me at all times and walks the journey in the hardships and the pain that I have. That's the rescuer I need. And then finally, the judge, the God I want, it's the God I need that teaches me mercy, mercy towards others, to make sure that the mercy that is extended to me is extended to everyone that I come in contact with also.

[11:18] And when we move away from the God I want to the God I need, the light of the world that was given to us is Jesus, who is at the center of the God that I need and not the God that I want. And only then will we experience the freedom from darkness that He has for us. Isaiah 9:6 says this, "For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders, and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

[12:10] His name is Jesus. And He, and only He, is the light of the world and the great light that drives darkness from the lives of all that experience darkness within the world we live in today. See, the thing is, you have three choices to make, just like they had three choices to make back then. You can reject that Jesus is the light of the world and drives away all darkness. They did then. That's a choice you have. Or maybe today has caused you to go, "I'd like to know a little bit more about Jesus.

[13:04] I'd like to know a little bit more about the light of the world, the great light." We've talked about this book a number of times already this morning, and we have these for you. And in here you'll find the answers: Why Christmas? Why Jesus? Because He loves you, and He and only He can set you free from the darkness you're experiencing. And the third choice is maybe you've already made that decision, maybe you've been following for a long time, and I wanna affirm that in you. But maybe you've made a decision here today to follow Him, and I would say, let someone know that you made that decision.

[13:58] You want to find what gets rid of darkness. It's Jesus. There's only one name above all names, and that's Jesus. And like in the Feast of Tabernacles and the illumination of the temple, this morning we are going to light one single candle here on the platform. And I'm gonna invite my partners that are gonna help me to prepare, and all of us will light from that one candle by sharing the one and only great light.